A detailed discussion of the size of the Norwegian Army assembled by Harald

Extract from Dave Cooke's as yet unpublished guides to the battles of
Fulford and Stamford Bridge.

(Reproduced with permission)

"Harald Sigurdsson brought a great army to England in 1066. The bulk of it
was raised from his Norwegian subjects. How did a king of Norway raise his army,
and what resources were available to him? The core of any Scandinavian army was
the Hird. These were the King’s own household troops. The Hird consisted of
three main sections: Hirdmen, huscarls and gestrs. The Hirdmen were professional
soldiers, paid and maintained by the king, and formed the elite of the army.
Huscarls and gestrs were considered to be a lower echelon, although still part
of the nucleus of the army. Harald had a force of 120: 60 Hirdmen, 30 huscarls
and 30 gestrs. Each of the king’s jarls also had a similar, if smaller,
household. Added to these paid soldiers were pirates and mercenaries, and these
formed the bulk of Viking raiding forces.

In 1066 Harald Sigurdsson did not bring a raiding force to England, but an army
of invasion. The Leidang, a levy of ships and crews raised locally, formed a
major part of this army. Each area was responsible for raising a set number of
ships and their crews. In the mid-10th century areas had to raise the following
number of ships:

This gives a total of 238 ships. The number of men needed to man these ships was
over 27,000. This raises an interesting point as to the size of Harald’s army
and fleet, which will be considered shortly. To provide the crews each farm, or
group of farms, had to provide one man over the age of eighteen. Single men were
called first, followed by farmers who had labourers and, finally, farmers who
did not have labourers. It can be seen from this that an attempt was made to
keep the economy intact, even when the nation was at war. This levy of the
freemen is often referred to as the “bondi”. A full Leidang was only called out
in a national emergency, usually when faced by a foreign invasion. For
operations outside the home country, it was usual to call out a half Leidang.
Snorri Sturluson reports such a call out: “King Harald then sent word throughout
Norway, raising a half-levy of the whole army”.

It is worth considering the size of King Harald’s invasion force at this point.
As has already been shown, in the mid-10th century a full Leidang produced 238
ships manned by 27,000 men. By the mid-11th century, the Leidang would almost
certainly have produced a larger number of ships, with an equivalent rise in the
number of crewmen. In 1066 King Harald sailed into the Humber with between 240
and 500 ships, as is reported in the various contemporary chronicles. The most
frequently mentioned number is 300, reported in two of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles. It is generally accepted that the most common longship, the
20-bencher, had a crew of approximately 100. If a fleet of 300 of these ships
had sailed into the Humber, 30,000 men, who would have formed an army of the
same size once they had landed, would have manned it. It should also be taken
into account, at this point, that the 20-bencher was the smallest ship mentioned
in the Leidang. It is generally accepted that King Harald’s army did not exceed
10,000 men, giving an average of just over 30 men per ship. So here is quite an
anomaly.

Snorri Sturluson provides one possible explanation:

“King Harald sailed south with his own men to meet the main army. A great host
was gathered there, and it is said that King Harald had over two hundred ships,
apart from supply ships and smaller craft”.

Here is a reduction of the fighting fleet by one third. But this still gives a
manpower strength of 20,000. It should also be borne in mind that Harald was
joined on the Orkneys by a contingent provided by the Earl of Orkney, and by
Tostig and his twelve small ships as the fleet sailed down the East Coast. So
the size of Harald’s army continues to grow.

Snorri writes that Harald had 200 longships when his fleet gathered at the
Solund Isles, but it is nor clear if he actually sailed with this number. In the
mid-10th century the period of service for the Leidang was only two months. By
the 12th century it had grown to four. Using the higher figure, this still does
not give much time to organise and carry out an invasion. It is obvious that
Harald intended to winter in England, should his invasion be successful. He
brought his wife and daughters to Orkney, with the intention of bringing them to
England, once he had established a foothold. Is it possible that Harald
disbanded the Leidang and sailed with only the Hird? There is at least one
precedent for this. Snorri writes that during the build up to the battle of
Nissa (August 9th 1062) Harald “sent back all the farmers’ levy, keeping only
150 ships”. The Hird and the mercenary element of Harald’s army manned these 150
ships. At the time of the Nissa campaign Harald was facing only one enemy, King
Svein of Denmark. Svein had proved himself to be an opportunist. Although Harald
was at peace with Denmark, it is not beyond belief that Svein would have used

Harald’s absence to begin a new round of hostilities. With this in mind, it is
unlikely that Harald would have stripped his country of all its professional
warriors. Someone had to provide a nucleus, and the leadership, of the army,
should Svein have taken this course of action. If this is accepted, then it is
quite possible that Harald sailed with a relatively small, elite, force of only
6-7,000 men. This was then reinforced to a total of 9-10,000 by the Orkney
contingent, Tostig’s men, and freebooters and mercenaries, drawn from as far
afield as Iceland, the Isle of Man and Ireland. So King Harald sailed into the
Humber with, possibly, 150 assorted warships. There is still a large anomaly
with the number of ships reported. Accepting the above explanation, and the
figure of 300 ships for Harald’s entire fleet, where did the remainder of the
ships come from? Snorri Sturluson provides an answer. When the Norwegian fleet
gathered at the Solund Isles it contained a large number of supply vessels. An
experienced commander, such as Harald was, would have made careful preparations
for his invasion. One final point: Duke William crossed the channel with a
similar-sized fleet, which contained an army of only 7,000 men. Of course,
another explanation is that the chroniclers simply exaggerated the size of the
Norwegian fleet. After all, other chroniclers in the same period reported an
English army of 400,000 and a Norman army of 60,000 at Hastings!